I love the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. And while I’ve never been faced with the dilemma of acing an oral presentation to pass history class, I have pondered the choices I’d make on a similar adventure.

If I could choose anyone to help me build a school or a classroom, who would those lucky individuals be? Who would be on my creative council? What values would I want those individuals to embrace and represent?

After all, if I’m going to hurtle through time in a phone booth, it had better be worth it, right?

And the candidates are:

1. Innovation: Tim Berners-Lee

If necessity is the mother of invention, Tim Berners-Lee can attest to the powerful truth behind this adage. What started out as a need for an efficient way for scientists at CERN to share data in a timely, efficient manner through a linked information system has turned into one of the biggest innovations in the history of mankind: the World Wide Web. Thanks to Berners-Lee’s creative solution to a complex problem, millions of people around the world are now able to network, run a business and receive a degree while sitting on the couch in their bunny slippers. Creating and sustaining a powerful teaching and learning environment causes some complex problems in need of creative solutions, and clearly Berners-Lee has the type of thinking that makes awesome things happen.

2. Inquiry: Rene Descartes

To start any intellectual adventure, we must come to a very powerful realization: ideas matter. Descartes introduced the belief that human beings possess autonomous reason, and by golly, we should use it. Ideas make the world go ‘round, and it is ideas that have led to many of the innovations we all take for granted. After all, as Descartes said, “I think; therefore, I am.” Young people need to acknowledge and utilize their capacity to think and reason if the future is to continue to be bright for us all.

3. Partnership: John Wooden

John Wooden isn’t known just for being a phenomenal basketball coach; he is also known for teaching his players lessons that impacted them both on and off the court. One lesson he hammered home was the power of partnership. He recognized that, although we may achieve great things, rarely do we reach our full potential alone — there is always someone or something helping us along the way. When one of Wooden’s players scored, acknowledgement of the player that assisted him was mandatory, for without that individual’s aid that basket might not have happened. United we stand; divided we fall. Students need to understand the power of collaboration and the impact that comes from true partnership.

4. Human Potential: Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson didn’t just write the words, “All men…are endowed…with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” he believed them. He believed that everyone had a right to education, regardless of circumstance or social status. Freedom and liberty are necessary for the full realization of human potential; all children should have access to equitable educational opportunities, along with the individual rights and autonomy to shape their educational opportunities in a way that fits their goals and dreams. Any person who is willing to devote his or her life to the realization of human potential via education can have a corner in my magical phone booth any day.

5. Moral Character: Atticus Finch

If you haven’t read To Kill a Mockingbird, you are totally missing out. Atticus Finch’s choice to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in Depression-era Alabama is, as you can imagine, not a wildly popular move in the eyes of his fellow townspeople. But Atticus is a man who lives his life by the principles of integrity and ethics, and he chooses to be as transparent as possible about these beliefs when dealing with the townspeople and his children. When questioned by his daughter, Scout, about his decision to defend Tom Robinson, Atticus tells her, “Before I live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself….the one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.“ Atticus lived his life grounded in righteousness, and his example is something I would want my students exposed to every day.

Who’s in YOUR phone booth?

So there you have it — my time-traveling phone booth is full of individuals that personify the values I would want to build a school or classroom. Leave a comment below and let us know who you would put in your phone booth? Who’s on the creative council for building your classroom?

Maria Derivan-Campbell is an instructional coach with NC New Schools. This post was created in response to the Share #YourEdustory challenge topic for May 24-30.